A strong earthquake struck a rural and mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan in the early hours of Wednesday, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more in one of the deadliest earthquakes in decades, the state news agency reported. . Officials warned that the already sad death toll could rise.
Information remained scarce about the magnitude 6.1 quake that damaged buildings in Khost and Paktika provinces. Rescue efforts are likely to be complicated, as many international aid agencies left Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover of the country last year and the chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. military from the United States. longest war in its history.
The death toll from the Bakhtar news agency was equal to that of an earthquake in 2002 in northern Afghanistan. These are the deadliest since 1998, when a 6.1-magnitude earthquake and aftershocks in the far northeast of Afghanistan killed at least 4,500 people.
Pakistan’s neighboring meteorological department said the quake’s epicenter was in Paktika province, Afghanistan, near the border and about 50 kilometers southwest of Khost city.
Images of Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan, showed victims being transported by helicopter to be transported from the area. Others were treated on the ground. A resident could be seen receiving fluids intravenously while sitting in a plastic chair outside the rubble of his house and even more scattered on stretchers. Other images showed residents picking up clay bricks and other ruins of destroyed stone houses.
Afghan emergency official Sharafuddin Muslim gave the death toll on Wednesday at a news conference. Earlier, Bakhtar State News Agency Director-General Abdul Wahid Rayan wrote on Twitter that 90 houses had been destroyed in Paktika and dozens of people were believed to be trapped under the rubble.
In this image taken from a video by the Bakhtar State News Agency, Taliban fighters secure a government helicopter to evacuate the wounded in Gayan district, Paktika province, Afghanistan, after a strong earthquake on Wednesday. (Bakhtar State News Agency / The Associated Press)
Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, did not give a specific death toll, but wrote on Twitter that hundreds of people were killed and injured in the quake, which shook four districts in Paktika.
“We urge all aid agencies to send equipment to the area immediately to prevent further disasters,” he wrote.
“The answer is on the way”: UN
In just one district in neighboring Khost province, the quake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 95, local authorities said.
In Kabul, Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund convened an emergency meeting at the presidential palace to coordinate the relief effort for the victims in Paktika and Khost.
The “answer is on the way,” United Nations Resident Coordinator in Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov wrote on Twitter.
After the Taliban swept the country in 2021, the U.S. military and its allies retreated to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and then withdrew completely. Many international humanitarian organizations have followed suit because of concerns about the Taliban’s security and poor human rights record.
Since then, the Taliban have worked with Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to restart airport operations in Kabul and across the country, but almost all international carriers still avoid the country and the reluctance of aid organizations to put any Money in the coffers of the Taliban could hinder the flight of supplies and equipment.
The Afghan Red Crescent, however, sent 4,000 blankets, 800 tents and 800 kitchen utensils to the affected area, according to Bakhtar director general Abdul Wahid Rayan.
The Italian medical aid group Emergency, which still operates in Afghanistan, said it had sent seven ambulances and personnel to the areas closest to the quake zone.
“The fear is that the casualties will increase even more, also because many people could be trapped under collapsed buildings,” said Stefano Sozza, Afghanistan’s national director of emergencies. “This latest tragedy cannot help but undermine Afghanistan’s fragility and economic and social hardship for months.”
Tremors were felt in Pakistan and India
In most parts of the world, an earthquake of this magnitude would not cause such widespread devastation, said Robert Sanders, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. But the death toll from an earthquake is most often reduced to geography, building quality, and population density.
“Because of the mountainous area, there are rock slides and landslides that we won’t know about until later. Older buildings are likely to collapse and collapse,” he said. “Due to the condensation of the area in this part of the world, we have seen similar earthquakes in the past causing significant damage.”
He is deeply saddened to learn of the earthquake in Afghanistan, which resulted in the loss of innocent lives. The people of Pakistan share the pain & sorrow of their Afghan brothers. Relevant authorities working to support Afghanistan in this time of need.
– @ CMShehbaz
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement that he expressed his condolences over the quake, saying his nation will help the Afghan people.
Mountainous Afghanistan and the largest region in South Asia along the Hindu Kush Mountains, where the Indian tectonic plate collides with the Eurasian plate in the north, have long been vulnerable to devastating earthquakes.
The European Earthquake Agency (EMSC) said earthquakes were felt more than 500 kilometers away by 119 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
A major earthquake in the northeast of the country in 2015 killed more than 200 people in Afghanistan and neighboring northern Pakistan.